Podcast Episode 9: David Leitner (part one)

David Leitner is a producer, director, and cinematographer with over a hundred credits in dramas and documentaries. From 1977-1985 he was Director of New Technology at New York’s legendary DuArt Film & Video, responsible for innovations in optical printing, cine lens testing, film-to-tape transfer and Super 16. He has since become an industry consultant on camera design. On the side, for decades he was senior contributing editor at Millimeter and Filmmaker magazines. He is a Fellow of the SMPTE and presently serves as digital scanning consultant and board member at IndieCollect, a nonprofit dedicated to digital restoration of American independent films.

David’s IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0500717/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_in_0_q_David%20Leitner

Memories of DuArt: https://metrograph.com/duart-the-young-brothers-and-their-family-of-filmmakers/

This podcast lasts 78 minutes, and continues with part two on July 22.

(You can click the Transcript button on the top right, and there you can jump to specific spots in the program.)

• 0:00 Intro

• 0:45 From Tennessee to Cornell University

• 3:30 To New York City; introduction to optical printing

• 5:00 Start work at DuArt Film Laboratory in 1977

• 6:30 Irwin Young’s influence

• 9:00 Filmmaking community in New York

• 11:00 Optical printing history and evolution

• 13:00 Computerizing optical printing

• 14:20 Super 16 history and development

• 16:30 Robert Young’s career

• 20:00 Lenses for Super 16

• 22:00 Camera and lens testing at DuArt

• 27:20 Zoom vs. prime lenses

• 30:20 7247 negative vs. reversal stocks

• 33:45 CRI vs. Interpositive/master postive

• 40:30 DuArt’s connection to Kodak

• 41:45 Color timing in photochemical era

• 49:45 Gamma control from negative, to pre-print, to print

• 52:40 First Rank Cintel telecines

• 54:25 Degradations in film printing

• 57:50 Resolution of 35mm film

• 59:30 Photochemical color timing, continued

• 1:07:00 Optical vs. contact printing; liquid gate

• 1:11:50 High frequency detail loss in film generation

• 1:18:00 End

This podcast is © 2026 by Larry Blake. All rights reserved.